Here we go again. The WNBA and its players' association have reached -- and this time signed -- a second contract agreement that, once ratified by players, could allow the rekindling of an old pairing on Tuesday.
That's when the four-round 1999 WNBA free-agent draft will be conducted in New York City at 9 a.m. MDT. The league is to begin its third season June 10.The Utah Starzz, who pick third in the draft behind the Washington Mystics and Sacramento Monarchs, desperately need guards but say that if Taylorsville post player Natalie Williams is still there, they would most likely choose her.
Two mock drafts by WNBA personnel project Williams to go to Sacramento.
"Yeah, without a doubt, she would be a logical choice for us, but I don't know if she will be available," said Scott Layden, Starzz' vice president of basketball operations. Layden said the Starzz are in need of veteran leadership as well as guards.
The 6-foot-2, 28-year-old UCLA two-sport graduate was a three-season member of the former-rival American Basketball League. She was ABL MVP in 1998, when she led the league in scoring and rebounding. She also led ABL rebounding in the 1996-97 season, its first.
Williams was participating Thursday with the U.S. National Team at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where Starzz' coach Frank Layden went to see her and other possible draftees.
"If she is available, it would be hard to pass her up," said Frank Layden, who was to watch her play for the first time Thursday night.
Scott Layden has interviewed Williams and other candidates by phone and likes Williams' game and character. "She would really strengthen our team. She is a fine player, and she seems like a nice person," he said.
If the Starzz can obtain Williams, who played for the ABL's Portland Power, it would in a fashion re-tie the Jazz and Williams names. Williams' father Nate was a member of the New Orleans Jazz from 1975 until January 1978, traded to Golden State a year before the Jazz, the Starzz' NBA affiliate, moved to Utah.
Scott Layden said the Starzz also like one other big player, Yolanda Griffith, 29, a 6-4 two-year ABL veteran. Griffith was runner-up to Williams in '98 ABL MVP voting when she was ABL defensive player of the year.
Guards who have caught the Starzz' eye include Dawn Staley, 28, 5-8, ABL assist leader in 1996-97 and member of the gold-medal '96 U.S. Olympic team with pro experience in the ABL, Brazil, Spain and France; Teresa Edwards, 34, 5-11, the ABL scoring leader when it folded in December and a four-time U.S. Olympian; Jennifer Azzi, 30, 5-8, a three-year ABL vet who played pro also in France, Italy and Sweden and won gold with the 1998 U.S. World Championships team; and, maybe as a second-round pick (No. 15), Debbie Black, 32, 5-3, '97 ABL defender of the year who also led the league in steals and assists that season.
Griffith and Staley were also on Frank Layden's sight-seeing list in Colorado, and each of the mock drafts have the Starzz taking one of them.
Other draftable players with the U.S. team include forward DeLisha Milton, Williams' teammate in Portland; and center Kara Wolters.
Tennessee's Chamique Holdsclaw is considered a lock to be No. 1 in the draft.
If you like omens, the Starzz drafted 7-2 Margo Dydek with the No. 1 choice on her birthday in 1998, and Tuesday is Staley's 29th birthday. Also, Staley graduated in '92 from Virginia with current Starzz' guard Tammi Reiss. More intrigue: Dydek's 6-7 older sister Kashka, a center for one season as a backup with Colorado in the ABL, is also on the draft list. Kashka spent much of last summer in Salt Lake City with Margo. They are playing together with the Polish team now.
As for the four-year collective bargaining agreement reached Thursday that allows the draft to finally be held, a week later than scheduled, "I'm happy it's over. It would have been a disastrous step for women's basketball if it weren't resolved," said Frank Layden. "It's fair for everybody, and now we have to go out and win the fans over."
The league and WNBAPA had agreed to a similar deal in mid-April, but before the document could be signed, each side charged the other had made unapproved changes. Reiss said Starzz players were never contacted about the disagreement. The tiff lasted long enough to wipe out some individual teams' free-agent tryouts and delay the draft by a week.
Disputed issues included whether ABL vets would be considered WNBA rookies and paid like rookies, raises for rookies and ABLers in coming years, the number of personal player appearances and some marketing/licensing guidelines.
Agreement was finally reached in a four-hour meeting Thursday. Players must ratify it, and that should happen by Friday or Saturday. Team training camps are to begin May 14, and the 32-game third-season schedule begins on time, June 10. The Starzz open June 12 hosting expansion Orlando in the Delta Center.
The new CBA retains many provisions of the earlier agreement, such as minimum salaries and incremental increases for veterans ($30,000 in '99, increasing $2,500 a year and by $5,000 in 2002) and rookies ($25,000/$1,500/$2,000), number of ABL players allowed per team (three on established WNBA teams, five on the two expansion teams in '99, no limit next season) and the addition of four expansion teams for 2000.
Also the same: medical and life insurance, retirement plan, paid maternity leave, guaranteed percentage of royalties from sale of player-identified merchandise, lifestyle aide for players in such areas as further education and financial planning and creation of a formal player advisory panel.
The new agreement considers ABL players the same as rookies this season, but they will sign one-year contracts rather than the WNBA standard deal of one year plus an option year at the league's discretion. That means ABL players can renegotiate a year sooner.
The new CBA also contains a "reopen" clause after three years, and both sides agree to no-lockout, no-strike clauses.
Those picked among the first four players Tuesday will make $50,000. Those picked fifth through eighth will get $44,000, and other first-rounders will get $37,500. Second-round picks will receive $30,000; third-rounders $27,000 and fourth-rounders the rookie minimum of $25,000.